P53 is the name of a human tumor suppressor gene and its protein product. About 55 percent of all human cancers from many cell or tissue types suffer mutations in both alleles of the p53 gene. People who have inherited such mutations, will develop cancer over their lifetimes.
The p53 protein is a transcription factor, which regulates the expression of a large number of genes. High levels of an active wild type p53 protein in a cell cause these genes to be transcribed at a high rate. Elucidation of the functions of some of these "p53-regulated or -inducible genes" informs the art of how the p53 protein protects humans from cancers.
There is a need in the art to discover p53-inducible genes and their functions, so that we may have a chance to circumvent the effects of p53 mutations in cancer, by activating the p53-inducible genes and repressing the p53-repressible genes, so as to arrest the cancer's growth. Thus, the elucidation of such p53-regulated genes provides useful and valuable information.